1 - Come along to a "Cocktail Party" with a difference - there are no cocktails! Learn through practical experience how to run this simple and adaptable collaboration technique. Hosted / shared by Mel Kendell, we'll be exploring "What are the challenges faced when organisations want to ‘be more agile’?".

"The Cocktail Party" can be used...:

- for purpose work- as a great project kick-off activity- for requirements gathering- as a precursor to prioritisation with multiple stakeholders

It all depends on the area of focus and the questions you ask.

It's a relatively quick idea generation, information sharing, and team building / stakeholder engagement technique which can be done with small or large groups, people that know each other well or don't know each other at all, or even to get a mildly adversarial group to understand each other better.

If you have a diverse team where some of the quieter ones don't always get to contribute in more vocal brainstorming sessions, this is a great way to give them space to be heard: generating and capturing divergent ideas and then bringing it back in with affinity mapping. It also stops people jumping into solution mode too early.

2 - Call to action! Now that we are starting to delve into practical tools, techniques and tricks to get us to better Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect and Improve - what can you take, use, learn, return and share? Next session it would be great if community members came back and talked about what they have taken away, tried and implemented. What did you learn and what story can you share!?